I haven’t always been here, and I haven’t always been an advanced classes kind of kid.
I came to the U.S. when I was in elementary school. Upon my arrival at my new school in a new country, I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to understand any of the teacher’s instructions or any of the words that my classmates uttered. To my surprise, when I entered my new classroom, I found out that all of the kids in my class knew Spanish. This was because the class I was in was designed for students whose second language was English.
The first day of school felt exciting knowing that I could properly communicate with my future friends–that feeling would only last one week. The second week of school this group of girls seemed to collectively agree to tease me. They would not only tease me, but they would also not help me with any assignments that had English. Because the girls who teased me had lived in the U.S. longer than I had, they already knew English. It didn’t take me long to pick up minor phrases. Knowing a few words, I could hear the other girls saying mean things about me. It didn’t bother me at first, but the bullying got progressively worse. It was only a matter of time before I eventually became tired of all the things they did to me.
We had a class routine in which we lined up to go to the restroom. I recall an instance in which I heard one of the girls whisper to her friend “Let’s push her when she gets to the bathroom.” I already knew my fate when I heard her whisper. I was the last girl in line to go to the restroom, so when I entered the restroom the other girls were already there. They were in a strategic formation which I noticed right away. There were two girls standing beside the stalls on the left side and one girl standing on the right side. Before I could react to this formation, I felt a strong push from my left side. After that strong push, I moved right, but I felt another push. Then, I felt a third push from my left side. After the third and final push, I quickly rushed to the furthest stall on the right side. I hastily locked the door and began to cry. That’s when I realized that their strategic formation was used to push me back and forth. I started to shake and cry hysterically inside the stall. Yet, despite the incident, I didn’t tell the teacher.
Once I got home from school, I finally told my mom all the things those girls had done to me including what they did to me that day. My mom told me she would contact the teacher to tell her about everything those girls have done to me. I quickly told my mom not to contact the teacher, and that I would just deal with it. The girls continued to bully me until I had had enough. I finally told my mom to tell the teacher about the situation. The day after my mom addressed the situation to the teacher, I saw that the other girls were outside of the classroom talking to the teacher. I didn’t listen to their conversation, but I knew that the other girls would be furious at me for snitching.
The bullying continued despite the teacher finally being involved. I just accepted that the other girls weren’t good people, and I started to talk to others in hopes of finding people who wouldn’t be mean to me. The other girls had bullied me while I was trying to learn a new language. By the end of the school year, I knew plenty of English and began to talk to kids during recess whose only language was English. Recess was the only chance I had to talk to kids from different classes. Those kids were nice to me unlike the girls in my class.
I began to notice that other kids weren’t mean when I was in the sandbox. The sandbox was the one place on the playground where there were a few kids, so I usually played there to avoid as many people as possible. One day, while playing in the sandbox, I began to build a mountain out of sand that was much bigger than the others’ mountains. I thought that my mountain would eventually get knocked over and all my hard work would go to waste. A girl, not from my class, told me, “I like your mountain.” I thought she was going to destroy my mountain because I was used to the bullying. Instead she complimented it. After she complimented my mountain, more kids started to compliment my mountain as well. They even started to help me make the mountain taller. Some kids decorated my mountain with nearby sticks and rocks while others helped me build it higher.
This was the moment I realized that there were good people after all. Since that beautiful encounter I had with great people, I dedicated myself to learning English. That way I would be able to socialize with people who didn’t know Spanish. That’s exactly what I did. The decision I made in the sandbox, alleviated many of the problems in my life by helping me engage with people who are good and empathetic. Choosing change still helps me in my current life. I chose to change myself in order to give my future self an advantage and leisure.